GGO - Hecate's Irregulars
by Saidre
Summary: In the aftermath of the Death Gun incident, Sinon, the freshly crowned champion of the third BoB, has to decide if she can bring herself to continue the game. At the same time, Klein and his buddies are growing up, and have to decide just how gaming fits into their plans for the future.
**A/N:** I'm alive! For those of you who read my normal ongoing, The Primordials Rebooted, that story is not dead, I've just needed to spend some time on other things. The idea for this story hit me a few nights ago and just begged to be written.

* * *

"Come on Asuna! You don't have to shoot anything, I just need a friend to go shopping with." Sinon was floating in the air above her new friend, trying to split her attention between learning ALO's flight system and pushing Asuna to give GGO a try.

The Slyph girl shook her head. "Sorry Sinonon. You know how I feel about PvP. I'm not really a gamer, I just play this to spend time with Kirito and the others." She let herself lay down in the grass, relaxing as she watched her friend's progress.

Sinon shook her head, but didn't protest the name. Considering Asuna had actually picked Asuna as her username, there wasn't much helping this girl when it came to when to use usernames as opposed to when to use real names. She suddenly dropped ten feet before catching herself. Probably best to either focus on flying or on talking, she decided. She gracefully floated down to where Asuna was sprawled out on the ground, taking a seat next to the Slyph.

"What's it feel like to have a tail?" Asuna couldn't help but ask.

"Huh?" Sinon responded, surprise showing on her face.

"Like, we all have wings, but it's just the Cait Sith that have tails. Does it feel weird?"

"I hadn't even noticed it, to be honest. Just liked the race, so I picked it."

"I understand. Have you been enjoying your time in ALO? I know it's nothing like GGO. Must be quite the adjustment for you."

Sinon shrugged. "It's nice not to be 'the girl player'. I also don't think I could really enjoy it right now, not after the BoB. Even if things hadn't gone the way they did, I wouldn't have been able to go anywhere without strangers harassing me. Most of the BoB winners have taken a break after their wins. Does Kirito ever plan to play GGO again?"

Asuna rolled over to look at the cat girl, the sky having lost her interest. She shook her head. "I don't know what his plans are sometimes. He didn't even tell me why he'd gone over to GGO before he did."

"Yeah. He's not the best about communication," Sinon responded, trying not to let her annoyance with Kirito for pretending to be a girl come back to her. After all he'd done for her, she couldn't begrudge him getting an accidental eyeful. Not too much, at least. She suddenly found herself looking at the ground, wanting to avoid that memory while Asuna was around. "Hey, I'm sorry if you feel like I've been hogging Kirito. After everything that happened, I can understand if you want me to stop. It's just. . . I don't really have a lot of friends. Two, really."

"No, no, I understand. I know it's nothing I need to worry about."

Sinon sighed in relief. "I'm glad, but I have to ask, what makes you so sure."

Asuna just laughed in response. "Yui likes you."

Sinon couldn't keep the look of confusion off of her face, but didn't press the matter. She and Kirito had been spending more time than she'd have liked just talking to Kikuoka about the incident in her apartment. She shook her head, pushing away the thought. The helplessness, the insecurity, the pure fear, none of those were things she wanted to revisit right now.

"He saved me from the same thing." Asuna said, reading the expression on her friend's face. Kirito had told her everything that had happened, partly because he'd realized he had a little explaining to do after their little scene in the cave, and partly because he'd wanted Asuna's help in trying to help Sinon.

Sinon gave a sad smile at the thought of her friend needing to be saved from that kind of assault, but at least someone had been there to do it. "You found a good guy, you know that Asuna?"

Asuna broke into a wide grin. "You better believe it." She glanced up, noted the time, and heaved a deep sigh.

"Something wrong?"

"Yeah. Time for me to head to dinner. You going to be alright? You need someone to log on later?"

Sinon shook her head. "I have to deal with things on my own at some point."

"Alright, but I expect a text if things get too bad for you." She flicked through her menu for a moment before glancing back at the Cait Sith. "I mean it, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I understand," Sinon shot back, sticking her tongue out at the other girl. She opened her own menu, ready to log out. "Seriously though, thanks. You guys have been great."

Asuna just gave her friend a smile as she flicked the logout button. Sinon didn't stick around afterward.

Shino pulled the Amusphere off of her head and found herself nearly blinded by her overhead light. She was starting to feel comfortable enough in her apartment to consider turning it off, but the whole place still felt somewhat foreign. Her sanctuary had been violated, and that was going to take time to overcome. Her eyes adjusted after a few moments, and she made her way into her kitchen to throw together whatever she could find for her own dinner. As much as she enjoyed spending time with friends, she was still adjusting to it. A few weeks ago the concept of having real friends had been foreign to her. The one person she'd trusted with that status had betrayed her. If Kirito hadn't been there in the BoB and if he hadn't shown up when Kyouji had broken in, she'd either be dead or completely broken. She was lucky. She smiled to herself. Asuna had definitely found herself a keeper.

Shino heard a chime come from her phone and stopped staring at her noodles to go retrieve it. She wasn't surprised that it was Kirito that had texted her. No, her surprise was what he wanted.

 _Hey, can you do a favor for a friend of mine?_

* * *

Shino was glaring at her amusphere, still wondering why she'd agreed to this. She hadn't set foot in GGO since the incident, and now Kirito was asking her to help a friend of his get started playing the game? Served her right for doing him the same favor, she figured. It was hard to move past what had happened. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She massaged her temples with one hand and sighed deeply. She'd gotten over her fear of guns. Mostly, at least. For once in her life, she was starting to believe that she could be strong. She wasn't going to let this steal that from her.

She took a deep breath, then looked around her room. Her door was locked and the chain was in place, something that she hadn't forgotten to do since Kyouji had broken in. She sat there for a couple of minutes, torn, before finally deciding to turn the light off while she dove. She wasn't going to live scared. She forced herself to stand up and slowly make her way over to the wall, flicked the lights off, and then sat back down on her bed and placed her amusphere on her head. "Here goes nothing," she muttered to herself. "Link start!" she yelled, and her vision burst into a stream of color as her body went limp.

* * *

The first thing Sinon did upon logging in was change her outfit. The hyper-revealing green and white top with short shorts ensemble had been something Kyouji had told her looked good on her. Now that he'd assaulted her, and now that she figured his motivation had never been exactly pure in the first place, she wanted to burn the thing. She picked a more standard, all-black ensemble, a coat she'd zipped all the way up to her neck and much more functionally designed pants. The only thing she kept from her old attire was her scarf. She'd picked that out, and she wouldn't let that be contaminated by what Kyouji had done. She discarded her old outfit, then exited the changing room, making her way through the busy streets of the SBC Glocken. It was strange to be back, but it was almost comforting to have finally taken the plunge. It would take some time before the act of diving in would feel natural again, but on the inside, she was home, so long as no one tried to cosplay as Sterben. Then again, in here she could mark their name and snipe them until they stopped, so there was that.

The Glocken's layout could be overwhelming to newcomers, a sprawling, floating city in the clouds above the expanse of Gun Gale Online's wasted earth. Sinon picked her way through the streets with the absent minded ease of an experienced player. She'd always liked the setting. This world was as broken as she was when she'd first started playing. Maybe that had helped her feel at home. It had taken a while to adjust to the lush, verdant beauty of Alfheim. She'd found herself squinting throughout her first couple sessions of the game. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy Alfheim, but Gun Gale was home. Moreso even than her apartment, really. It was nice to feel the heft of Hecate on her back again. It was hard to feel too insecure when she could feel that familiar weight.

She found that she'd arrived almost unconsciously at the new player spawn point. She didn't know whether or not Kirito's friend had ever played GGO before, but she'd thought this would be the best place to meet up with, what was the man's name? Klein. It would be the easiest place to find Klein if he wasn't sure how to get around the city. She glanced around, looking to see if anyone matched the description Kirito had given her. Why he hadn't just used a screen shot she had no idea, but she'd stopped questioning the weirdo after he destroyed the Bullet of Bullets with a photon sword. She still couldn't believe he'd given it to her after the BoB. He could have sold it and cashed out his account for a decent amount of money. Kikuoka was probably paying him pretty well, though.

"Hey, you must be Sinon," a voice broke through her thoughts. She whirled, but managed to keep herself from jumping. The voice belonged to a scruffy looking man in starting level gear.

"Uh, yeah," she managed as she composed herself. "Yeah. Are you Klein?"

He nodded and offered his hand. "Yeah, sure am."

She shook his hand, still not sure of what to make of the man. "How'd you know who I was?"

He raised an eyebrow at the question. "I know we've never met, but me and a bunch of Kirito's friends were watching the BoB, wishing we could do something to help him get out of there okay. You can change your outfit, but you still have bright blue hair and a giant sniper rifle."

Sinon shrugged. "Fair enough. Kirito said that you wanted help getting into this game. You just want me to walk you through the basics of it? Seems like he could have done that."

Klein shook his head. "No, it's not that simple. See, me and a few of my friends have been playing MMOs together for years. Much as ALO has been fun for us, we're looking for a bit more. We wanted to see if we could hack it here, make a little money."

Sinon felt almost indignant at the casual way he said it. Just break into GGO? "So you thought you'd just jump over and start taking over the tournament scene of the toughest VRMMO out there?"

Klein shook his head, but he was smiling. "No, that's not it. We don't want to take anything over. You see, the thing is, a lot of us haven't really been on the job market in a few years. And we're starting to get a little older, starting to get real life responsibilities. I know I may look like a dashing young rogue, but I'm already in my mid-twenties." Klein ignored the chuckling that came from Sinon at the last comment. He'd taken some of the air out of her indignation, and that was what he'd been going for. "A lot of us have to start setting priorities in our lives. If we can make a living playing this, then that means we can stick together and support ourselves by doing something we love. If we can't, a few us might have to walk away from VRMMOs for a while. There's nothing wrong with that, but we decided we were going to try and take our shot while we had it."

Sinon's face softened. She could understand taking risks to be around friends. After everything Kirito and Asuna had done for her lately, there wasn't much she'd hesitate to do to help them. "I understand that. So you're just looking to make a living. But why come to me for help? It's not like I've ever taught anyone."

"You seemed to do pretty good teaching Kirito. You and he took down the biggest tournament in the game just a few days after he'd joined."

She waved her hand dismissively at the comment. "Yeah, I taught him so well that he never bothered using a gun for anything."

"Come on, give yourself some credit. I think he used it like twice."

She shook her head, but smiled at the comment. "Not helping."

"To be honest, it was Kirito's idea. The guys and I were talking to him about this idea we were having and he told us he thought it was a good plan. He's the one who said he could probably get the strongest player in GGO to help us out."

"And he sent you to me?"

"You did win the BoB, if I remember right."

"I tied it with Kirito."

"You blew him up with a grenade."

"I blew myself up, too."

"Yes, and that was adorable and that gif will never go away. But you did blow him up."

Sinon sighed, realizing she wasn't going to win this fight. Still, it was encouraging to hear someone call her the strongest after all the effort she'd put into improving herself over the past few years. Besides, even if she tied with Kirito, she did tie for first.

"Besides," Klein continued, "have you been checking the power rankings on message boards? GGO has disowned Kirito for walking away after winning the BoB. They love you, though."

Sinon shook her head. "Honestly, I don't pay much attention to those discussions. I know who I think are some of the best players in the game. There haven't been any big tournaments since the BoB, so there hasn't really been need for me to check out people's performances."

"Still, most of them have you listed as number one right now."

"Alright," Sinon decided. "I'll do it. For now, all I can promise is that I'll help you get your group on its feet. When do I meet the rest of the crew? Don't want to do too much without them."

"That's fine. Does friday work for you? Around four?"

"Sure. I can do that. We'll meet here, get you guys outfitted, and then we'll discuss things. Sound good?"

"Sounds good. It was great to meet you, and I hate to cut this short, but Lis is going to kill me if I don't get out of here soon. See you Friday." Klein opened his menu and logged out, leaving Sinon to wonder what just happened and who Lis was. She shrugged, then logged out herself.

* * *

Sinon was sitting with her arms over her knees, Hecate sitting in the middle, resting on her shoulder. She'd picked a relatively out of the way area for Klein and the others to meet her. It wasn't that they couldn't meet in a more public area, it was just that she didn't want a lot of attention right now. Upon looking through some of the message boards, she'd discovered that there was a strong sentiment that she should be the one to replace Zexceed and some of the others in leading the metagame discussion. That wasn't something she was really interested in at the moment. Not discussing, anyway.

Actually, she'd had plenty to think about after her discussion with Klein. She'd used GGO to help with a little extra spending money from time to time, even had to use it for rent once or twice, but she'd never really considered doing it full time. Strange given the hours she logged into it, but she wanted to be the best, not necessarily the most successful. Even if she didn't believe that she'd achieved that, she had managed to take down the BoB, so maybe she was good enough to give this thing a run. At least it'd be something she enjoyed. She could do it whenever she wanted, so school wouldn't get in the way. She'd have to talk to Kikuoka and see if there was any way she could incorporate this into her goal of working with law enforcement one day. For now, though, the idea had taken root in her.

She was pulled from her thoughts by the chaotic footfalls of several people coming towards her. She glanced up from the place she'd been staring a hole into the ground and saw Klein and five others walking towards her. They all appeared to be around the same age as Klein, but GGO avatars could definitely be decieving.

"Sorry it took us so long," Klein called out to her. "We got completely turned around. How do you get around in this place?"

She stood up, using Hecate to help her gain her balance. "I've been playing this game for over a year now. You figure things out eventually."

"Yeah, yeah. If you say so." Klein muttered dismissively. His face lit up a moment later. "Oh, right, sorry, you guys still haven't met, have you?" He glanced around, not bothering to wait for anyone to answer. "Guys, this is Sinon. Sinon, these are my friends," he began gesturing to each in turn. "That's Kunimitts," he began pointing to a black haired man who sported scruff similar to Klein's, "Dynamm," he continued, gesturing to a man whose bandana and mustache gave him a spanish look, "Issin," this time Klein was pointing to a thin, almost gaunt man, "Dale," Klein gestured towards another member of the group, this one much more heavy set than the rest, "and Harry," he concluded, finally gesturing to a boy who Sinon was convinced couldn't be much older than her.

She shook each person's hand in turn before returning to her spot on the ground, once more placing Hecate in front her. "Go ahead and make yourselves comfortable. If we're going to be working together, we may as well get to know each other.

Klein spread his hands outward, and his friends took this as his approval to find seats along the walls of Sinon's chosen alcove, setting everyone up in a semicircle facing the younger girl. "Nice jacket, by the way. I like the new duds," Klein commented.

Sinon looked down, having completely forgotten that Klein hadn't seen her new jacket before. After their conversation the other day, she had a hard time sleeping due to nightmares of Death Gun and the BoB. She'd logged into to GGO mostly because she couldn't think of anything else to do. It felt safer to be in here than it felt to be in her house, even if this technically was in her house. It was while she'd had her mind on the topic that she'd messaged Zaskar asking to customize her jacket in honor of the players who'd been lost during the incident. Zaskar had been highly supportive of it, and had sent her a new item free of charge. The new jacket, named 'The Lady in Mourning', had the words 'BoB 3' emblazoned in red on each shoulder and on her back. In addition to that, the names 'XeXeed', 'Pale Rider', and 'Garrett' were written in the same color. She was glad to be able to do something to honor their memories. She'd been inches from being one of them. Maybe at some point she would be able to work with Zaskar to do something for their families.

"Thanks," she responded, not really wanting to dwell on the topic. "You guys should probably get some new clothes yourselves. That stuff isn't going to help you very much if we're going to be serious about this."

"So what should we get to start out?" the young one, Harry, asked her.

She just shook her head. "Come on, there's dozens of newbie guides out there for this game. There's a few different ways to play this game, and I don't know what roles you guys want to play. Message me before you buy anything, but that's not really what we're here to talk about today."

Harry seemed to bristle at the dismissal, but Klein intervened, raising his hand to placate the boy. "She's right, we should do some of the basic work ourselves here. We're trying to make this our job, feels like the least we could do is try to catch up. So why are we here today?"

"You wanted my help getting started. Do you just want a guide, or would I be joining you guys if this all works out?"

"What do you mean, joining us?" Dynamm, the man who appeared to be a spaniard asked.

"I mean making this a permanent squadron." She sighed, then decided it was best to explain what all she was thinking. "Look, I don't really have a squadron right now. I used to work with a group of PvP farmers, but that's. . . that's not really where I want to be right now. I've been playing mercenary enforcer for long enough. Especially after the BoB, I'd like to be making my own decisions now."

"So you want to be our leader?" Issin asked, his voice unsure. "Klein's been our leader for years."

Sinon shrugged. "I'm not trying to push anybody aside. But you did ask for my help. Whether this is permanent or not, I need to trust you guys to follow my instructions if you guys are going to get anything out of this."

"Sure," Klein announced, cutting off any further arguing. "So long as I get the final say in things. We may be new to the game, but you're new to the group. I'm sure we can find a natural way of doing things given a little bit of time."

Sinon nodded her assent. "Sure. I'm okay with that. I don't expect to tell you guys what hours you have to be on, just listen to me when it comes to gameplay. The game's in a pretty fragile state right now, after all. We don't need you guys wasting stat-points on bad advice."

Klein wasn't entirely sure what she meant by the game being in a fragile place, but he was sure they'd get to that later. "That sounds fair. That's what we came to you for anyway."

"Klein, I know we talked about this earlier, but I want to ask you guys again. What do you guys want to do as pros? Are you just in this to make a living?"

The group glanced around at each other. Kunimitts spoke up first. "I'd like to make a living working with a bunch of guys I've come to think of as family, doing something we love. We don't have to be great. I just want to be somewhere where we can do things our own way." He glanced around and was greeted by nods of agreement. "I think I speak for everyone when I say that. That work for you."

Sinon let a sly smirk slide across her face. "Yeah, it does. But tell you what, would any of you really object to breaking the game?"

Klein found himself at a loss for words. Just a few days ago she'd been insulted by the notion that people would even think about just walking into GGO and vaulting to the top of its standings. Lucky for him, Kunimitts wasn't so lost for words. "You better believe we'd love that, but how do you think we could? None of us knows anything about the game."

"Exactly. I don't know how much attention you guys have been playing to the metagame discussion lately, but right now everyone assumes that the results of the BoB were a fluke. The fact of the matter is, Kirito and I broke it."

Confusion still played on everyone else's faces, so she decided it would be best to continue. "One of the most important things to understand about GGO is the Law of Distances. Certain weapons are better from certain ranges. The two extremes, obviously, are sniper rifles at long range and knives, photon swords, and other non-projectile weapons work better at close range. Trying to win a fight in a locked room with a sniper rifle against someone with almost any other weapon is almost impossible, but trying to beat a hidden sniper with almost any other weapon from range is almost equally suicidal.

That said, the range weakness has historically been crippling for snipers. It's just too hard to get through a long tournament without anyone finding you and getting you at close range while you're looking for someone else. That leads most players to stick to middle ranged weapons, and that leads into the strength vs agility argument that's dominating most of the message board. The big thing everyone's missing is that what Kirito and I presented was a formula that breaks through the majority of modern player builds. Kirito's defense is nearly impenetrable. the photon sword's ability to block bullets if you can cross the projection line in time makes the range question irrelevant when it comes to being able to bring him down, and his weapon is king at close range, and his style allows him to close the gap against anything but opposing snipers.

"With so few character builds seeing play that actually deal with a swordmaster, the support of a single sniper can break things wide open. The only reason no one's trying this setup is because the consensus is that no one else in the world can have the same reflexes as Kirito."

"So what makes you think we can exploit this?" Klein asked, though he had a feeling he knew the answer.

"Because you're SAO surivors."

The shocked look on most of their faces showed Sinon that she'd guessed correctly. "You said you'd been away from the job market for a few years. Nothing huge by itself, but you're also close enough to Kirito to have told him about your plans to switch games to work on making a living for yourselves. You told me that because you were asking for help, but I doubt you'd tell most people you weren't very close to. That, and Kirito knows I don't always do very well with strangers, so I can't seem him asking me to meet someone he didn't trust. Given your background, I took an educated guess. Looks like I was right. So which of you is the best swordsman?"

"Kunimitts," Klein said immediately. He had no delusions that his leadership somehow made him the best fighter in the party. "You think you practice to do what Kirito was doing? Can you block bullets?"

"Give me a month. I'll have it down. That good with you?" Kunimitts asked Sinon.

Sinon nodded her approval. "Yeah. GGO's recently announced support for more five on five events. Apparently the BoB has been bringing in enough money that they want to start moving to challenge the other shooting games in esports. The nature of VRMMO's just gives them a huge edge in marketability. That said, we have a couple months before the next big event arrives. So long as no one minds getting left out of tournament play, I think we'll be just fine by that point."

Dale, the largest member of the group, took his turn to speak. "We've never been the kind of people to all have to have our names out there. We don't mind supporting each other. Whoever's playing the best right then will play. Some of us actually enjoy grinding."

"I think that about settles it. We'll give this a few days to get the kinks worked out, but I think we've got a pretty good system going here." He glanced from player to player before continuing. "We're happy with this. Are you in?"

Sinon couldn't help but let that smirk play across her features again. People wanted to know her opinion on where the metagame stood? Here was her answer. "Yeah. I'm in."

"Then it's agreed." Klein was about to continue when he noticed the time on his display. "Oh crap, I need to be in ALO ten minutes ago! Lis is going to be furious!" He logged out without properly saying goodbye, leaving behind five chuckling men and a very confused Sinon.

"Seriously!? Who is Lis?" She found herself almost shouting at the air.

Dynamm was the one who answered this time. "You just met him, but the boss used to be a horrible skirt chaser back in SAO. Lis is the only girl to be patient enough to actually get to know him. He asked her out a week or two back. He's been trying to bend over backwards to find time for her since then.

Sinon just sighed. This might be a little more difficult than she'd anticipated.

* * *

 **A/N:** This was a lot of fun to write, and I hope you all enjoyed it. Please leave your comments in the review section. This is intended to be a one shot, showing the beginning of a new chapter for people, but I could easily come up with another chapter or three of this. Just depends on how things go and what response this gets.

I could also be tempted to do something like this with Sugu in ALO.

Primordials will be getting attention as soon as I can. It's a long term thing, but that doesn't mean it's all I'm going to do. Thanks again for reading, everyone.


End file.
